I attended a class on XML. Now I want to learn all about the types and use of markup languages. Finally I understand the SOAP versus REST debate. There is still much to learn.

AJAX

Today was the last day of my XML Training class. We had a shortened session today. And we covered many subjects. However we did not delve too deeply in any of these subject. Essentially we reviewed different applications that use XML. One of these uses is Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (XML).

Early web pages had to reload the entire web page every time there was a change needed. However this was slow and was overkill when you needed to modify a small portion of the web page. Thus Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) was introduced. It allows JavaScript running on the client to make a request to the server. The JavaScript then takes the server response and updates a small portion of the web page. This is done in the background. Therefore this is an asynchronous operation. The AJAX communication between client and server is in XML. The JavaScript sends the request to the server via XML over HTTP. The server also responds in XML format.

The final topic of the class was securing XML. You can utilize HTTPS. This method was previously called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). However this is a slow option. An alternative to speed this up is to encrypt select elements that contain sensitive information. And that's it for my class. However there is a follow on class covering advanced XSLT that I may take. If so, I will share all that I learn. I hope this series in my blog has been instructional.